Quills
by justification to wormtail
Summary: The Marauders first year at Hogwarts, will eventually become a slash with two of the Marauders. Does not really follow the books. JPLE PPOC MMAB and one-sided RLSB.
1. chapter number one

_Quills_

This is about the Marauders first year at Hogwarts, how they become their own person, and how their friendship grows. I know that it is an over-used topic, but they're my favorite characters and this is my first fic.

**Warning: there will be some one-sided slash in the last two or so chapters!** Pairings are LEJP (but it's one-sided), PPOC, MMAD, and P.PomfreyAM. There will be more but those are the most prompt ones. This story will most likely **NOT** follow a lot of the books. **There will be spoilers for those who have not read Deathly Hollows. **

Begin chapter one

James Potter 

BONG! _'Crap! I forgot about that bloody alarm!'_ James thought as he hastily jumped out of his large four-poster bed, ripping the covers off of himself. He started to race across the vast bedroom to shut off the gong-like sounding alarm that was sitting on a dresser by the door. When he was almost there, his right foot crossed his left, and not noticing this, he tripped and landed flat on his face with a proclaimed (and rather loud) thump. The alarm was still going off, the sound echoed throughout the Gryffindor red and gold decorated room.

"Oh great," the messy haired boy muttered, absent-mindedly rubbing the bridge of his nose. _'I'd give a hundred galleons if the entire house wasn't awake by now…' _he thought darkly. Now walking over, James forcefully hit the alarm on the top and it instantly fell silent. Pleased that he had gotten it to shut-up, James glanced at the face of the clock and read that it was only two-thirty in the morning. He groaned and walked over to where he'd fallen, making to pick up his glasses and ramming them onto his face.

'_Why the hell did I get up so early,'_ a mischievous grin played its way across his face as he remembered. _'Oh, I'll get in big trouble for this,' _the be-spectacled boy thought, _'but it'll be well worth the look on Perenelle's face when she wakes up.'_

The plotting eleven-year-old was brought out of his thoughts as he noticed a large barn owl tapping on one of his windows. In its beak, he saw, was an envelope, sealed with a badger, eagle, snake, and lion.

Sirius Black

There was a bang and a small shriek, that's all that Sirius Black needed to know to realize that his prank, if that's what you would call it, had worked. He was too swept up in gleeful laughter and dance to notice the loud thumping noises that signified someone ascending towards his bedroom.

'_Ha! That was perfect, but I hope that nothing went wrong…If it did thought, Andy'd be able to take care of it for Bella and Cissy, right?' _He was still too busy celebrating and questioning himself to notice that his door opening.

"SIRIUS ORION BLACK!" Bellatrix screeched at the top of her voice. "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO!?"

"Well Bella, first off, I would greatly appreciate it if you stopped yelling in my ear." There was an indignant huff. "Second, how do you know it was me who did it? It could have well been Regulus, or Andy and Cissy."

"Because," she seethed, dark gray eyes brimmed with malice. "_You _are the _only_ bloody-one who's dancing around and laughing. _And_," she emphasized, "you've got the oddest sense of humor that the entire wizarding community has ever seen."

"Ahhhh, but that's why you love me!" the cousin cheekily replied.

"Yes, I suppose it is," the usually black-haired beauty grudgingly admitted. It was just then that Narcissa, Regulus, and Andromeda entered the messy room, the first twos noses recoiled at the smell. Andromeda marched up to Sirius with a scowl firmly planted on her face. The boy sighed, he had been counting on his cousin to help back him up, instead, she was going to be the one lecturing him on the importance of NOT turning peoples hair into king cobras.

"An owl came for you today, while you were still sleeping, or plotting. Tell your mother and father, when they get back, that they need to get ready for a trip to Diagon Alley." With that she left, only apprehensively eyeing Bellatrix and Narcissas' snake covered heads once each, where as Regulus stayed a good two yards away from the duo. The blond cousin glared at her cousin once more before exiting his room, Bella left without a second glance, and the little brother gazed fearfully at his sibling, who grinned back, before rushing downstairs to ask if he could play a game of exploding snap before breakfast.

"Yesssss!! I'm going to Hogwarts!" Sirius screamed as he started laughing his head off and jumping around his room again.

Peter Pettigrew

Dink! Dink! Dink! Dink! The noise was getting louder every time it sounded. A short and chubby blond-haired boy groaned and pulled an over stuffed pillow over his ear, trying to block out the sound and get back to his wonderful, food-filled dream.

"Peter, you dolt. Turn the alarm off before you wake Mum up, you know that she needs to have some rest!" a voice hissed from the single bed next to Peters.

The boy sat up with a jolt that knocked the clock to the hard flooring where it broke. _'Oh_ _no_,' Peter groaned inwardly, covering his face with his hands. _'I broke the stupid thing…Mark's going to kill me, that's the third one this week!'_

"Peter," the voice was slightly apprehensive, "Peter, did you break it?" A very adult groan was heard as Peter mentally cursed his clumsiness. "You did, didn't you." It was more of a statement then a question. There was a large sigh accompanied by the sound of someone getting out of bed. "Well, I'm off to take a shower. You can pick up the pieces, again, and throw 'em into the trash bin, again."

"Kay, Mark," the younger brother mummered while keeping his eyes downcast. _'Darn_ _it!'_ he thought, _'Why do I have to be so damn clumsy all the time?'_

A short man, rather on the plump side, jogged into the small bedroom, his fuzzy blue bedroom slippers loudly scuffing on the floorboards. He was grinning madly, baby blue eyes twinkling like there was no tomorrow, in his left hand, a very rumpled piece of parchment was clutched. Ian Pettigrew ran over to his second eldest son and gave him a huge and proud hug. He wiped some tears from his eyes and ran a beefy hand through his wispy blond hair when he'd broken off.

"Hullo, Dad. Why're you so happy? I mean, I know it's twins this time, but you weren't _this_ happy when Tammey was born." Peter frowned as his father chuckled and lovingly ruffled his sons yellow hair.

"You clearly lack certain observational skills, my boy," he smiled.

'_Well that's not a very nice thing to say to someone first thing in the morning,'_ Peter thought. Mr. Pettigrew chuckled again as the scowl remained, he handed the parchment to his son so that he could read it as well. "Does Mum know?"

A shake of the head, "No, it came just now, along with the morning paper. I didn't want to wake her up, as she's still resting." They mirrored each others grins, "Now get dressed, Pete, we need to get breakfast finished and head off to Diagon Alley to get your Hogwarts supplies."

"Wow," Peter muttered as his dad left the room, "I'll get my own wand!" He raced out of the room as his father called out to him to hurry it up.

Remus Lupin

"Remus…" a soft voice drifted up the staircase that led to the attic-space. "Remus dear…" the voice, slightly louder, called again. A tuft of tawny hair emerged from underneath the hand knit sheets. Two narrowed and groggy-looking amber eyes, flecked with gold, soon followed suite. There was a large, collective yawn and stretch as the boy pushed himself upright, he sat cross-legged on the bed for a few minutes, with his eyes closed. If Remus Lupin was anything, it was definatly not a morning person.

"Remus, please wash up then join your father and I for breakfast. I made your favorite, today's a very special day."

'_My favorite!'_ There was a thump as the young werewolf fell out of his bed onto the hardwood flooring below.

"Are you ok, Rem?" a different, deeper voice called out. "You seem a bit, _slower_, then usual this morning…" his dads voice drifted off.

"Wha'? OH! Oh, yea…I'm fine, really. I was just," he searched for the right word, "startled, is all."_ 'That would be an understatement,' _he thought, _'as far as falling out of bed_ _would go. What's the occasion, though, I wonder…'_ "Oh, well." The bookworm muttered as he shuffled across his attic bedroom to the joined bathroom to wash up.

Five minutes later he was sitting at the Lupin's kitchen table, happily munching away at fresh blueberry and chocolate pancakes, rashes of bacon, and a glass of milk. Although, all the while he was keeping a close watch on his parents to see if they would give out any hints as to what was going on.

When, finally, everybody was done eating, Remus was clearing up the table and the dishes and Mrs. Lupin was putting away the leftovers, Mr. Lupin pulled something out of his pocket and spoke to his son:

"Rem, you remember how we told you about Hogwarts, the Wizarding school, right?" The boy tilted his head to the side quizzically but nodded all the same. "Good, now, remember how we thought that you couldn't because of, err…your…condition?" Remus nodded his head again and noted the use of past tense. A spark of hope lit up inside him, maybe he could go after all…. Mr. Lupin held an envelope out to his son, "Well," there was a look of pure happiness in his eyes and on his face. "We're going to go get your supplies today after you've showered."

Remus just stared blankly at the envelope, not even bothering to open it. He broke into a wide smile, dropped the letter onto the table, and ran upstairs as fast as his short eleven-year-old legs could carry him. He, a werewolf, Remus John Lupin, _'was going to Hogwarts.'_

End chapter one

Please review and tell me what you think, _really, really _think.

Oh, incase you didn't notice (which I highly doubt is true)

Words written in italics like _this_, are for emphasis; _'This'_ thoughts; "This" speech.

Tell me if I should go on or not

Ciao, Cola :)


	2. chapter number two

_Quills_

Disclaimer- I realize that I didn't put one in last time so: I'm not J.K. Rowling, and the only characters in this story that are mine are the ones that you've never heard of before.

I decided that most of the chapters will only be told from one or two different points of view, but some may be from all four of the Marauders or others, like teachers. But only the importent chapters. **Remember there will be slash in some of the later chapters…**pairings are: JPLE (one sided), RLSB (one sided), P.PoAM, PPOC, MMAD.

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James Potter--

"Are we there yet?"

"No James, we're not." Mae answered her son with a sigh. The Potter's had left for King's Cross station during the early hours of the morning so that they could, as Phillip Potter had put it; 'Get some well needed exercise and see what the Muggle city's all about!' They had played two-a-team Quidditch all summer, and were very fit because of it, but in the eyes of Mr. Potter (Phillip), they still could do with some more exercise.

"Humph, I hope that Flowery's all right…. You know how she gets sometimes if we're gone for too long." James said. _'I just hope that a week isn't too long.' _Flowery, the Potters' house elf, would usually jump to what she thought were the worst conclusions if she thought that they were gone for too long, most of those conclusions were that they had gone off and gotten their heads pickled by some wizard-collecting Muggle. At the moment though, she was safe and sound at the Potters' manor in the country.

It had been precisely a week since the owners were there; they had had to floo to the Leaky Cauldron so that they could get school supplies and in James' case, an owl. As said before, Phillip had wanted to walk to King's Cross, so they decided to lodge at the famous pub in order to be on time.

"We'll be there within ten minutes, kiddo," said Phillip, addressing his son with a hint of disdain in his voice. The head of the house loved everything Muggle; he'd even gone to a collage that specialized in mechanics after he left Hogwarts, graduating at the head of his class and getting an engineering job soon after. Now, at the tender age of forty-two, he was the top dog of his department. His wife had been so exited about the news that she bought an enormous plot of land and had a manor built atop it; all Gryffindor style.

"Don't worry, love. After the Express leaves, we can go look at the automobile shop for a new car." Mae said, lightly resting her hand on her husband's shoulder. James laughed as his father instantly perked up, Perenelle just scowled.

"Arthur's going to apologize again as soon as I find him, Dad," she said.

"Oh there's no need for that Nelle! He apologized about a hundred times while we were de-treeing the car, didn't he?" James nodded to confirm the question.

"_Well_ _actually_, about a hundred and one times," he corrected.

"_Well actually_, once more never hurt anybody," the older sibling huffed. "That car'd cost thousands of pounds. It's a shame that you got him as obsessed with Muggle things as you are, Dad, he would've made a great teacher."

"He still will!" the youngest fumed.

"Will you two please stop fighting, we've only got twenty minutes until the train leaves, and with you in its wake too." Mae insisted.

"Fine." James shrugged and turned to his dad, somehow he managed to instantly become elated. "Oh I'm _really _exited! Hey Dad! Which house d'ya think I'll be in? I hope it's Gryffindor, then I'll be just like you!" That would be true; James had inherited Phillips' forever messy raven hair, as well as his deep hazel eyes, strong jaw, and optimism. "Won't that be great?"

Phillip laughed jovially and beamed down at his prodigy as they walked step by step together. "Jim, there's not a single doubt in my mind that you'll be in-"

"Hufflepuff, with the way you're going on," Perenelle interjected with a grin to ensure that she was joking.

"Don't be silly, Nelle!" James scoffed with a dismissive wave of his hand. "How could I, the one and only magnificent James Phillip Percival Potter, get into _Hufflepuff_?" he joked back.

"Hmm, you do have a point there my ickle little Jamie-kins," she giggled at the indignant look that had settled on James' face. "With that ego of yours, you're bound to be destined for Slytherin!" Her giggles turned into laughs at the falsely horror-stricken faces of her father and brother.

"We're here!" Mae called back from her place five yards ahead.

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'_I'm going to Hogwarts! I'm going to Hogwarts! I'm going to Hogwarts!' _James continued his four-worded 'song' as a hum as Perenelle dragged him towards the barrier.

"James, if you don't shut-up with that stupid chant, I'm going to rip out your voice box as soon as the chance arises." James decided to stop; he really wouldn't put it past his older sister to actually do that. She would. "Now remember, if you have any questions, you need to ask me now. I won't be available during the train ride; I've got prefect duties to up-hold." The brick wall was coming closer. James' snowy owl hooted nervously, Perenelle's gave it a comforting and affectionate nudge; the two were in the same cage so that James could watch them more easily. "Thanks for agreeing to watch Mithras for me, it really means a lot."

"No problem, well, as long they don't plan on giving us any little owls anytime soon. Consider it as payback for helping me name Minerva." He alleged.

"Gladly." And with that the duo vanished into the rust red stone, not re-appearing on the other side. Mae and Phillip smiled at each other and disappeared as well, along with their children's over-packed trunks.

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"Bye Mum, love you bunches," a tight hug and a peck on each cheek. "Love you too, Dad," the process is similar, but the kiss is planted on the girl's forehead. "And James, you might not believe me, but I love you a lot as well." Perenelle bent down to her eleven-year-old brothers height and rested her forehead against his. Her eyes scanned his slight features; they darted back to his eyes. Deep hazel looked into clear white.

Suddenly James was pulled into a tight embrace, he wrapped his arms around his sisters middle and squeezed back. "I love you too, Nelle." He whispered into the seventh year's dark, curling, red hair. "What's wrong, Nelle?" he asked, worried.

"I-I have a bad feeling about the next seven years. Nothing for you to worry about though." She sniffed. '_It must be about that Volde-moldy, or Dark Lord-thingy guy.' _He thought. _'But I can't say anything, I'm not supposed to know.'_

"Don't worry about Voldemort, Nelle. Hogwarts is safe, we'll make it through."

"Spoken like a true Gryffindor, my ickle little Jamie-kins." They pulled apart as the scarlet steam engine's shrill whistle blew. "Now off you go, make some new friends, keep them even if the aren't sorted into your house."

"Even Slytherin?"

"Even Slytherin." She laughed. "They're not all bad. Just most of them." And she was off, running onto the train with her trunk tailing her. _'Even Slytherin…'_

"That's good advice she gave you, you should keep it," James turned around to find his father grimly smiling. "Now I want you to know, we, your mother and I love you loads. Nelle does too. Listen to what the professors and prefects tell you, don't get into _too_ much trouble, and have fun. Bye kiddo, I'll see you at Christmas time if you want."

They hugged and Mae said:

"Phil, he's only got two minutes left to go, give me a chance." The three Potter's grinned as the matriarch joined the fray. "Have a great time, James. _And don't forget to do your homework!_" she called after him as he boarded the famous train. "Oh! And another thing! Don't-" but her words were lost as the Express' engine fired up and it began to roll out of station, seemingly determined to make as much noise as possible. James gave his parents one last toothy grin before closing the door and picking up the owls and his trunk.

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James growled from somewhere deep in his throat. He had spent the better part of the last twenty minutes looking for a compartment. _'Twenty minutes!' _He thought as he looked at the beaten looking leather watch on his wrist. The boy lifted his head and gazed around at his surroundings. _'How long is this bloody train anyway?'_ Snapping his concentration back to finding a place to put the two sleeping owls and very heavy trunk, he walked over to a random door and poked his bespectacled head in.

"Excuse me, sorry to bother, but, do you happen to have any room left?" he asked politely. Glancing around, he noticed that five sixth-year Ravenclaw boys, already in their school robes, occupied the compartment. They were playing a game of Exploding Snap; all of them had soot covering their faces. The one closest to the door and James took off his glasses, cleaned them off on his friends' robes, and put them back on.

"No, I'm sorry, we don't. You're a first-year, though, aren't you?" James nodded. "Do you know who Perenelle Potter, the Head Girl, is?" James grinned.

"Yeah, she's my sister. But she asked me to not try and find her. Prefect and Head Girl duties and all." He told the sixth-year.

"Oh, well in that case…the other Prefects have to do rounds in about," he glanced at his own watch, "about twelve minutes, tops. Think you can manage 'till then?" James grimaced.

"Yeah, think that I can. Thanks for the help." He withdrew his head and slammed the compartment door closed. He was now officially, pissed out of his mind. James glared at the brown carpeting of the train for a few moments, contemplating what he could do. So in a last ditch attempt to keep calm, he walked around for ten more minutes, sticking his head into almost every compartment he passed and asking if they had any room left.

He was in the last carriage of the steam engine when he finally blew his casket. For thirty seconds James stared at his trunk, deciding that it was giving him a funny look; in ten seconds it was lying on its side having the shit beaten out of it. Soon after that, the eleven-year-old began yelling obscenities out as well. Somewhere in his mind it registered that he could hear the voices of his sister and her fellow prefects and friends coming towards him, but he never acknowledged the fact until he heard the outraged cry of "JAMES!" coming from none else then Perenelle.

He didn't stop verbally and physically assaulting his belongings until he felt strong arms wrap around him, trapping his arms at his sides and lifting him a foot off of the floor.

"James, what the hell are you doing?"

"Well I thought that that was pretty obvious, Gideon!" James growled at his sisters' friend and fellow Gryffindor prefect.

"Fine then!" Gideon snapped back. "_Why_ the hell are you trying to beat your stuff into pulp!?" he asked as James continued to struggle against his hold.

"James, _answer Gideon's question_," the Head Girl said through gritted teeth as she walked up from behind them.

"Humph, fine, I guess, since you two don't seem likely to bugger off…"

"_James_," Perenelle warned mutinously.

"Okay already! I couldn't find a sodding compartment!"

"That's it!?" Gideon and Perenelle cried in unison and disbelief. "Just because you couldn't find a place to sit your little arse down on, you had to start destroying your stuff and yelling obscenities out like there's no tomorrow?" the first continued.

"Well _apparently _because that's what I've been doing for the past five minutes." Some girls in the background giggled and started to furiously whisper. "Where've you been anyway? Some sixth-year Ravenclaw who was playing Exploding Snap with his friends recommended for me to find you!"

"What?" she asked surprised. A frown contorted her delicate features. "What did he look like?"

"Umm, well, he had glasses like mine and long brownish-blonde hair. He was sitting with four other Ravenclaws." Perenelle looked as though she could commit homicide there and then, with her bare hands.

"OLIVER!" she hollered, James felt Gideon cringe and remembered that Perenelle was standing directly at the strawberry-blonde's shoulder.

"Who's Oliver?" the first-year whispered to the seventh-year who was still holding him in a very tight grip.

"He's a seventh-year Ravenclaw Prefect. He's also Head Boy, supposed to be helping hopeless younger students like you." Came the whispered answer. Gideon snorted and released James. "Pig-headed jerk, he is. Nelle could do much better then him, and Dumbledore could've found a better Head Boy too." James grinned as he rubbed his aching arms.

"So," he supplied, "you have a thing for my sister, do you?" All of the color in Gideon's face left as he gulped. "Well then that's good. Dad likes you; know how to drive a car. Don't worry though, Nelle'll come around." The seventh-year grinned as well and patted the younger boy on the shoulder.

"Hehe, thanks." His face became stern. "But _never_ let me catch you swearing so much _ever again_! You're too young for words like that. I'm going off to find Nelle, don't try anything, I'll find you a compartment for you to sit in." He looked around for a few seconds before throwing open the door to his right. Grabbing the handle of James' trunk, he flung it inside and gripped James' arm, who soon followed the trunk, lastly, he tenderly picked up the owls' cage and gently set it inside the compartment. He scowled at James (who was getting up from the ground) one last time before slamming the door closed and stalking away.

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"Blimey, what the hell did you do to get his knickers in a twist?" asked a voice from behind James. Said person spun around to see three curious looking boys, and one equally curious looking girl, staring at him. The boy closest to him was surprisingly good looking for a boy his age; with shoulder length, silky black hair and eyes the color of molten silver. He seemed familiar. "_So_," he pressed again, "_what did you do_?"

"Um," was all that managed to come from his mouth. _'Wow, I must really look stupid, just sitting here…'_ he thought, noticing that he had fallen over again. A greasy haired boy sitting next to the window sighed and looked up.

"Well, if you're not going to say anything, then at least get up off the floor. Your owls are going mad." He pointed out. "I'm Severus by the way. The redhead over there," he said pointing a hitchhiker thumb at the girl sitting across from him "is Lily Evens. I'm sorry but I don't know the rest of your names."

"Thanks, Sev. But next time I can introduce myself, 'kay?" Lily said and Severus nodded. "Well anyway, I'm a Muggle-born, so I don't know much. But didn't the letter say that you were only allowed one pet?"

"Yeah, of course you're only allowed one pet! What gives with you having two?" asked the first boy. James suddenly flew up, remembering who it was that he was looking at. _'No wonder he seemed familiar, he was at Gringotts with his family last week!'_

"_You're a Black!_" he accused.

"_What_!?" the other cried, confused. "No! Last time I checked I was a Caucasian!"

"He means your _surname_." Sighed the scarred boy who was sitting next to Lily. He closed the Muggle book that he had been reading and set it next to himself on the seat. "And what does it matter that he's the son of Walburga and Orion Black? He might not be like his parents. Sirius, you know that Lily is a Muggle-born and you didn't run. Why is that?"

Sirius looked a little apprehensive that the boy knew his and his parents' names but answered all the same. "Well," he said, drawing the word out. "_why_ would it matter? I mean, we're all going to the same place, and we might be sorted into the same house, so what's the point of making enemies with someone who you'll be stuck with for the next seven years. And anyway," he shrugged, "if she's here now, then there must've been wizards and witches in her past family line. You should never judge a book by its cover." The scarred boy nodded, the answer was sufficient enough.

"Good that you think civilly," Severus growled. "any different and you'd be out of here in less then ten seconds."

"Sev, _stop threatening people_!" Lily hissed at her best friend. "Anyhow, thanks Sirius and…?" she questioned with a quirked eyebrow. _'How the hell does she do that?'_ James thought as he watched the girl who greatly reminded him of his sister.

"I'm Remus, Remus Lupin."

"Well it's nice to meet you, Remus." The redhead said smiling.

"Who're you at any rate?" Sirius asked James. "And why the bloody hell do you have two owls!?"

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Well that's the end of the second chapter, sorry that it took me so long to update. I'm a large procrastinator and the first copy of the second chapter wasn't good, I'm not too keen on this one either, but it's better.

Thanks so much for all of the reviews, they're really great!! And the reviewers rock! I hope that the story meets your standards; I know that it's going slowly but it'll speed up next chapter. Peter didn't show up in this one because he's so quiet and shy and the only time that James noticed him was when Sirius first talked. _"Said person spun around to see three curious looking boys..."_ He'll be in the next one in which the Sorting hat gets Sirius confused even more. But not by too much.

Thanks again! Cola (justification to wormtail)


	3. chapter number three

_Quills _

Disclaimer- all of the characters that you've never heard of before are mine, otherwise they belong to J.K.R.

I'm sorry that it took so long for me to update, my mom took the computer out of my bedroom and grounded me from the computer for two months. I've been getting small sections typed at random intervals; once again, I'm sorry for the delay.

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--Sirius Black--

"_SLYTHERIN!"_

Underneath the tatty old hat Sirius bit his lip. _'Mum and Dad'll be proud,' _he reminded himself as he handed the Sorting Hat back to the Deputy Headmistress. _'At least I'm not in Gryffindor; they would have had my head for sure if I'd been put in there.'_

As the boy made his way over to the Slytherin table to sit with his cousin and fellows, his silver orbs danced anxiously around the faces of the five other first-years with whom he had shared a compartment. Each time eye contact was made, the same reassuring smile was given.

For some reason, Sirius looked to Remus the most for acceptance. His gaze was always trying to capture the amber one of his new friend, apologizing. Out of the twenty-five new students attending Hogwarts, James, Peter, Remus and Sirius were the only ones whose robes were dripping wet; courtesy of the Black heir himself.

_FLASHBACK_

"_Hey, Sirius?" Remus asked abruptly as the two boys made their way down to an empty boat at the edge of the vast lake._

"_Yeah," Sirius replied._

"_Have you ever been obliviated before?" The black haired boy turned to look at his companion as they sat down; but Remus was busy staring at the smooth surface of the water and fiddling with the front of his school robes. _'Well that's an odd question to ask.'

"_Huh, I can't honestly say that I know," Sirius answered. "Would someone remember being obliviated __after__they were obliviated?" He asked himself out loud. The smaller boy opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted by James and Peter joining them in the rickety boat. Slowly, the crudely built object eased its way from the shore line and began its journey across the foreboding lake._

"_Cool!" James exclaimed, looking down at the boat with approval. He turned his hazel gaze to Remus and Sirius. "Hey guys! What were you two talking about?" _

"_Whether or not somebody would be able to remember being obliviated," Remus answered before Sirius could do much more than open his mouth._

"_Yep," Sirius confirmed tartly as he scowled at the werewolf, "that's it."_

"_Neat!" quipped Peter, "But, uh, __why__ are you two having a chat about that? It's, well, it's sort of a random topic to talk about." He rushed. James pushed his round glasses farther up the bridge of his nose as his eyebrows knitted together. _'All too true.'

"_Yeah! Pete's got a good point going for 'im." The messy haired boy agreed with a firm bob of his head._

_Remus looked slightly harassed as he answered. "Oh well, you know…this and that….Nothing particularly important…." James' frown deepened._

"_That__," he pronounced forcefully, "is not __nearly__ sufficient enough to be called an answer."_

"_We were talking about it because Remus asked me out __right of the blue__ whether or not __I'd__ever been obliviated before." Sirius announced as though the very thought of it were ridicules. He turned to the tawny haired boy; Remus looked as though he would give anything to not be where he was at the moment. _'Hehe, poor kid, wonder what he's so worked up about.'

"_Why'd you do that, Lupin?" demanded James. Remus paled a bit then._

"_Err-I don't __really __have to tell you if I don't want to, right?" He whispered in an odd voice. Peter surveyed the faces of the two black haired boys, filled with anticipation, and faced Remus who was sitting across from him._

"_Sorry mate, but from the looks of it, you do." The pudgy boy answered apologetically. Remus moaned and flopped forward in his seat. Keeping his head downcast, he muttered something un-intelligible. _

_The three remaining boys exchanged confused glances. "What did he say?" asked Sirius._

"_No clue whatsoever," answered James, who was still frowning. Remus sighed and lifted his head up._

"_I said that it's because I've met Sirius before."_

"_And why're you so embarrassed to say that you've met me before?!" cried an indignant Sirius._

"_Oh, nononono! You're misunderstanding me; it's nothing personal, Sirius." Remus hastily tried to correct the situation. "It's just that the thing that we were discussing is sort of, eh how do I put this, a __tender__ subject with many people."_

"_Well then," said James, as though Remus should elaborate, he decided to play dumb instead._

"_Well then what?"_

"_Aren't you going to tell us what we, and by that I mean us two, were talking about?" _

"_Didn't I __just__ get finished telling you that it's a soft subject to most people!?"_

"_Well… yes, but do you really think that that's gonna stop us?" For a minute Remus remained mute to Sirius and James' latest words. _'As if. Hell would have to freeze over first.'

"_Do I seriously have to?" he whined at last._

_Sirius stood up suddenly and the little boat rocked perilously along with the shift of the weight. He took an immensely startled Remus by the shoulders and shook him roughly. "Yes, you do have to! It can't be so bad that you can't even speak about it!" He was grinning like a maniac._

"_Yeah well your mini me screamed his lungs out when he stumbled upon us in that stupid corner of stupid Flourish and Blotts." Remus muttered bitterly._

"_Who? Reg?"_

"_Reg?"_

"_Reg. My little brother, Regulus," Said Sirius with a proud grin. "Anyhow, was anyone with him?"_

"_Yeah, a girl who seemed to be about his age, or younger."_

"_What did she look like?" demanded Sirius._

"_Uh, I don't really know," Remus smiled sheepishly. "It turns out she's a metamorphmagus." Sirius sighed in relief. _

"_Oh that's okay then." He said. "Just Nymphadora."_

"_Nymphadora__?" James hadn't bothered to keep his distaste for the name out of his voice. "Blimey, who in their right mind would name a kid __that__?"_

"_No one. Her mum was half delusional from blood-loss when she named her. But you know wizarding law prevents people from changing their names just for the heck of it." He shrugged sadly. "Her mum's dead now, and her uncle and my oldest cousin, Andromeda, they've been out of Hogwarts for two years now, they're her Godparents so they look after her. Dora's pretty much family for all of us."_

"_I'm sorry, Sirius. I didn't know…"_

"_Peter! What're __you__ apologizing for!?" _

"_Well, I'm just sorry that your cousin-in-law died!"_

"_Cousin-in-law…" said Sirius with a blank expression on his face. "Oh, no!" he started to laugh. "Dora's mum isn't my cousin-in-law; we're not even remotely related. Mum and Dad think that Ted's family is an old American Pure-blood one, but Ted and his sister are, were, Muggle-born. It's sort of sad really, that they haven't noticed by now._

"_Anyway, Reg and Dora are best friends. Joined at the hip - literally once - you hardly see one without the other."_

"_I'm still sorry 'bout her mum…" Sirius turned to look at Peter in exasperation; his hands were still firmly locked onto Remus's shoulders._

"_Get a grip, will you! You didn't even know the women! Mark my words you'll be a Hufflepuff for sure."_

"_I don't deny it, my entire family has been," mumbled the blonde proudly. "And I'll be damned if I'm not in the house of my ancestors." Sirius shrugged._

"_Eh, I'll be in Slytherin no doubt. The stuff my parents've taught me'll probably build along that path." James snickered into his hand and Sirius turned on him. "You got a problem with that, Potter?" he demanded._

"_Y-you want to be 'n __Slytherin__!? The nursery to the Serpents?" Sirius stood up abruptly._

"_I never said I __wanted__ to be!" He pouted, making his way across the small boat to sit next to Peter again. Suddenly he turned around and opened his mouth to say something to Remus, who was now massaging his shoulders. Taking a step forward, the black haired boy slipped in some of the water that had splashed into the boat from when he had first crossed._

"_Eee!" He squealed as he tripped over the side and into the murky depths below, a few bubbles surfaced as his soaked head reappeared a moment later. "There's – some – __thing__– down – there!" He panted. Fear was evident in his voice and eyes. "It – gra – grabbed – my – leg!" The frightened boy made to grip the edge of the rowboat, but instead grabbed hold of Remus's robes._

_The tawny-haired boy took his friend's arm and tried to tug him back into the small vessel with help from Peter and James; but the Thing in the lake wouldn't have any of that. It gave one last great yank and the tiny boat toppled over in the water, a loud splash marked the point in which the kids fell in. _

_Seconds later four dripping wet heads emerged from the deep. They exchanged equally frantic looks before screaming out simultaneously:_

"_HAGRID!__"_

_END FLASHBACK_

"I hate giant squids…" mumbled Sirius as he approached the spot where Narcissa sat.

"Oh _Merlin_, Sirius!" She exclaimed as he sat down. The blonde scooted farther down the bench, trying to put distance between herself and her cousin; her nose scrunched up in distaste when he let his head fall onto the weathered table, soaked hair splayed about. "You absolutely _reek_!"

"Great observation, Cissy dear," said Sirius dryly.

"What the hell happened!?"

"I slipped in some water on the boat and fell overboard. The Giant Squid wanted to play so he pulled me under. Remus, Jim an Pete tried to help so they got pulled in too." He lifted his head and looked at Narcissa expectantly. She looked at him as though he were crazy.

"_Giant Squid_, are you mad?" She asked, brow furrowed.

"Possibly." he shrugged. "But that's what Hagrid said it was, and I tend to trust people who help keep me from drowning."

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--Lily Evens--

"_SLYTHERIN!_"

_'WHAT!? But I'm Muggle-born, Sev told me that Slytherin __hated __Muggle-borns! How could you put me in there?' _Lily demanded. _'Do you want me to die?'_ The hat chuckled atop her head as she glared up at it.

_"Dear child, why would I want you to die? You've done nothing to deserve that fate."_

_'I know! That's why I asked you if you wanted me dead, which you must if you're sending me to live with those snakes.'_ She said as though it were the most obvious thing in the entire world.

_"But your new friend Sirius is there, is he a snake?"_ The hat asked stubbornly, not wanting an eleven-year-old girl to beat it. _"He defended you in a sense on the train, didn't he?"_

_'Okay, fine. Maybe not all of them are bad…'_ she paused to think for a moment. _'But he may have just been trying to save his own damned skin!'_

_"Evens, you know that that's not the case."_The hat said sternly, and it quieted. Grudgingly, Lily hopped off of the stool and handed the Sorting Hat back to Professor Winsawe, who raised a thin eyebrow at her before calling out in a high-pitched reedy voice:

"Fortescue, Florean!"

Lily turned her back as a tall tan boy with bluish-black hair shuffled up to the stool. She snorted and gave James a strained smile as she passed him; he gave her the same shaky grin that he had bestowed upon Sirius. Remus and Peter were kinder as both smiled and clapped enthusiastically along with the Slytherins. Severus was frowning, eyes closed, mouthing words and beating a fist against his forehead. Deep in thought, trying to decipher something that he couldn't see. The fuming redhead decided to ignore him all together, when Severus was thinking as he was at the moment, there was no hope of reaching him.

When Lily finally reached Sirius, his head was back against the table and a pale blonde girl was scowling at him with a scrunched up nose. It suddenly hit Lily why. The area around Sirius stank horribly, like rotting fish and eggs; the young redheaded girl blanched and hissed at Sirius in an undertone:

"Black, you'd better take a shower once we get to the Dungeon's, else the entire place'll smell like decomposing fish and eggs for a month." The addressed groggily lifted his wet head and blinked at her with surprised eyes.

"Lily! When'd you get ere?" He whispered as his eyebrows knitted together. "Why're you sittin' at the Slytherin table?" Lily rolled her eyes; she wasn't in the mood for this – still annoyed at the Sorting Hat for putting her with the snakes, to be honest.

"Because that stupid _hat_ put me here," she growled irritably.

"Why would it put you here, Salazar Slytherin _hated _Muggle-borns?"

"I know. That's what I said!" She let her head fall onto the table. "I hate school."

"Aww, c'mon! Buck up, you're making me feel bad now." Sirius pouted. "But seriously, _why did_the Sorting Hat put you into Slytherin? I mean, it must have something against you or something like that…"

"Gee thanks, you're being a _Siriusly_ good friend by telling me that a highly powerful magical object has a grudge against me for some crazy, _random_ reason!" Sirius opted to glare at the redhead before speaking again.

"Firstly, don't ever use that pun _ever_ again because if you do I might just strangle you," Lily glared back. "Secondly, Maybe I'll look into it for you, _if, _you're nice." Lily grunted in response and leaned back, forgetting that she was sitting on a bench that didn't _have_ a back. She fell over, landing ungracefully on her butt. Sirius didn't seem to notice as he rambled on. "- cause to be honest, it's kind of confusing me too. But I mean, you can't be the only one who – OW!" Lily had smacked him in the back of the head.

"Sirius Black you are the biggest toe-rag to ever stalk this planet." She explained her action through gritted teeth as she sat down again.

"Toe-rag? What the hell is a toe-rag?" He asked quietly with a confused expression on his face as he rubbed the back of his head.

_'Imbecile…'_

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--Minerva McGonagall--

Minerva McGonagall watched as the drenched tawny-haired boy, pale with fright, clenched his fists together so tight that his knuckles turned white. He bit his lip so hard that his sharp canine teeth drew crimson blood.

_'Oh Remus, don't do that. You know that your mother hates it when you do.' _

She saw the hard, sneering expression on the face of Professor Venda Winsawe as she came to the boy's name and was forced to read it. She watched as he saw it too.

_'And that bitch calls herself a Head of Hufflepuff; I thought that they were supposed to accept people for who they are! Remus, don't pay that old pre-justice crone any attention.'_

The young witch glanced sideways at her fellow teachers to see what their reactions to the werewolf's Sorting was. On the other side of Albus was his brother Aberforth, both of them were leant over and speaking in hushed tones with the other; Aberforth caught the now- shaking boy's eye and smiled at him warmly before the boy gulped and sat down on the wooden stool. As always, Albus was resting his chin on fingers laced together, his bright blue eyes twinkling like there was no tomorrow.

_'How can he be so lax about everything all the time!?'_

Next to Aberforth was an old witch, she didn't seem all too happy about the new students so far…especially the sopping wet Sirius Black, and she kept glaring at a messy-haired boy as well as Remus and another, this one though, was blonde and pudgy and short. All four had one thing in common besides gender and age and such; they were all soaked to the bone.

_'Summerset never was too happy when it rained, always got in the way of the telescopes and lesson plans…didn't it?'_

Sitting beside the Astronomy professor was a middle-aged wizard with a poofy walrus mustache, his robes seemed slightly too well fit for his large gut. Horace Slughorn was beginning to get a glazed look in his dark eyes as they stared down at the drool accumulating on his plate.

Hagrid was blinking back tears; he looked extremely nervous and exited at the same time. They silently streamed down his face now and he didn't bother to take out his handkerchief to wipe them away, just used the back of his hand. Minerva smiled as she watched her old friend.

_'Bless him.'_

She was about to turn to her right when she felt a light tap on that arm. Turning around she found herself nose to nose with Marcus Binns, the fifty-eight-year-old History of Magic professor.

"Uh, er, well hello sir!" Minerva gave a nervous chuckle as Binns drew away with a skeptic look on his lined face. "Lovely day, um, _night_, isn't it?"

"Yes," he drew the answer out slowly, his expression never changing. "Yes it is, Minerva." He held out a hand. "It's been a while since you left school, hasn't it?"

"Oh not really, only four years. But then again, a lot can happen in just four years." The man nodded in understanding. "But that's not what you wanted to talk about is it?" Now he smiled with a reminiscent shimmer in his dark blue eyes.

"Ever the attentive one, Minerva," he spoke quietly and she nodded in mute agreement. Suddenly Binns' expression became stern. "But I was wondering if Albus was kind enough to inform you that you will be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts to a_ werewolf_, _a dark creature in itself_?"

"Goodness, no!" She exclaimed dramatically, letting her hands fly up to her mouth for added affect. "I was just under the impression that I would be teaching my nieces and nephews _about_dark creatures, and what to do if they ever shall meet one!" Binns lifted his eyebrow to show that he was not amused.

"Minerva now is not the time for silly games. That boy is no boy; he is a filthy beast, a monster and an animal, a hazard to us all." She placed her hands on her lap and looked down, slightly ashamed for messing around when she knew that the elderly wizard was being serious, before getting a disgusted look on her face. Minerva glared up at her once-professor as she spoke. 

"Remus is no monster, filthy beast, animal, _or _dark creature; so therefore, one may assume that he is no hazard in the least!" Her nostrils were flaring in her fury, that of a Gryffindor and an enraged aunt.

"Minerva that is the point: '_One may assume_'! Remus Lupin may come across as just an innocent little school boy, but he can tear you to shreds _and he will_."

"Only once a bloody month, and when that time comes anyway, he's not himself. Remus can't help it that he was bitten when he was five, in fact, it was actually my father's fault and my entire family has had to pay a dear price for what happened that night!" Her voice was beginning to crack. "You know nothing of what it's like to lose three immensely close loved ones in only five minutes, one of who's loss is not physical, but mental!"

Binns sighed, and massaged his temples. "I will not disagree with you on that fact, Minerva; but bear in mind that I wish no bodily harm upon your nephew or your family in general. Now let's just focus again on the Sorting." The grey haired man turned away to examine the waiting students.

Minerva looked back at the stool which was now occupied by a girl with dark hair and light skin. The professor bean to panic until she spotted her youngest nephew amongst the seated students, she never noticed Aberforth looking at her with deep concern in his ice blue eyes, Albus was eyeing Binns with disdain.

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--Remus Lupin--

"Are you sure that that's the right choice?" Remus whispered to the pointed wizard's hat sitting on top of his head.

_"Of course it is, Lupin. Would I tell you that it was if it wasn't?" _The tawny haired boy snorted lightly and cast a quick glance in the direction of the Slytherin table. Lily was saying something to Sirius, who didn't seem to be paying attention for he was staring up at Remus with a look of concentration on his face.

"He's trying to figure out which house I ought to be in," Remus told the Sorting Hat.

_"Oh yes, very good Lupin," _said the Hat sarcastically._ "Maybe you're right and I'm __not __putting you in the correct house after all. Would Ravenclaw suit you better do you think?"_

"Ahh, no! They'll figure it out in ten minutes, you can't put me there!" squeaked Remus, taking the Hat's sarcasm literally, it glanced down at him in exasperation.

_"Boy, nobody can figure out that a person is a werewolf just by being in their presence for ten minutes unless somebody already told them or the has just transformed into the wolf or back again." _It sighed. _"It seems that I was right about putting you in a house full of block heads after all."_

"Hey, you watch it Mister, hat-thingie…whatever it is you are! Almost my entire family's there!"

_"See Lupin, you're already sticking up for your house. I can feel the pride in your heart for being put into that place where your aunt is Head," _said the Hat smugly.

"Actually I was sticking up for my family. But fine, whatever, it's supposed to be your choice after all," said a defeated Remus. The Hat stopped humming its victory song and looked as though an epiphany had hit it.

_"For once you're right, Lupin! It __is__ my choice!"_ It looked as though it would jump for joy if it had legs. _"So therefore I hereby dub thee a – _

_"GRYFFINDOR!"_cheers erupted from the Gryffindor table and Fabian and Gideon Prewett started to do a little victory wiggle on their bench.

"But I'm not brave!"

_"Ta ta for now little Lupin boy…Good luck." _

Remus yanked the talking hat off of his head and cast a quick glance over his shoulder at the High Table where all of the teachers sat; his Aunt Minerva was in a heated whisper-argument with a grey and white haired man. The boy turned away and handed the Hat back to the witch who still had a sneer on her face, he kept his amber eyes downcast as he trudged over to the Gryffindor table to sit next to his cousins and brother. _'I should get used to that.'_

"Hey, Rem," said Molly casually as she snatched some Muggle photographs from the hands of Arthur Weasley, who was sitting across from her. She slipped them into a pocket of her robes, smiling. "Glad that you could make it ol' bean," she said to him as she laughed at the annoyed expression on her boyfriend's face.

"Wotcher, Remmy!" Gideon and Fabian snickered in unison, they were grinning like drunkards - as usual. The twin brothers were sitting on either side of Arthur, each with an arm over his shoulders, their pointed hats askew, showing their closely cropped strawberry-blonde hair. Remus looked questioningly at his older brother Romulus. _'Please don't tell me that they're drunk already…'_

"Don't worry, Remus. They're not actually drunk," Romulus assured his younger sibling with a smirk. "They're just acting again." The two brothers turned to glare at their cousin, who just went back to examining something that he held. Molly scooted over to her left so that Remus could sit down. He sat and leaned over so that he could get a better look at the badge in his brother's hands; it read _HB_ in large, curling letters. Remus frowned and looked around at his family.

"I thought that Oliver Farlis was the Head Boy along with Perenelle Potter?"

"He is," said Arthur with a look of great dislike on his features.

"But our dear-"started Gideon from Arthur's left.

"Lovely-"Fabian chimed in from his friend's right.

"Wonderful-"

"Magnificent-"

"Amazing-"

"_Genius_-"

"What they're saying," interrupted Romulus, with a faint trace of pride in his voice as he looked up from the badge, "is that I snitched his badge –" He smiled happily at the memory.

"While Perenelle screeched at him for not helping younger students and being lazy," finished Molly. Arthur and Romulus nodded in agreement.

"Okay," said Remus slowly, "I get that bit…but why did you take it in the first place?"

"Because," said a voice from behind Remus, "we're going to prank him with it." Perenelle Potter slid onto the bench next to Molly with a gleeful expression on her pale face. "So now all that remains is the fact that we need to actually come up with a prank idea, any suggestions?" The entire group was immediately attentive and eager.

Suddenly, Fabian turned to Remus with a confused expression on his face. "Hey, Rem, why're you so wet?"

_'Why this lot?"_

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--Peter Pettigrew--

Peter watched as Jacob Oswald, a yellow-haired, yellow-eyed boy scampered to the Hufflepuff table with the Sorting Hat still on. _'Oh God, please don't let that happen to me.'_

"Pettigrew, Peter!"

The Great Hall was silent as the pudgy boy slinked over to the stool and sat down, the next thing he saw was the inside of the Sorting Hat.

_"Pettigrew. Pettigrew, Pettigrew, Pettigrew." _Peter jumped as he heard the small voice beside his ear, as if someone were whispering to him. _"Now where have I heard that name _

_before? Oh yes! It was ages ago, if I remember correctly…Your great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather was the headmaster here for twenty years!"_

"Y-yes sir," stammered Peter, "h-his name was Isiaac Pettigrew, sir."

_"Right, right. Well enough dilly-dallying, I must find out which house you belong in." _Peter gulped.

"Will it be painful?" he asked.

_"Only if you wish it to be,"_ said the Hat as it began to sift through the boy's memories, the most recent ones first. Peter noticed that the Hat just skimmed through them, trying to decipher his feelings about people and certain events. _"Ahh, I believe that I've found it." _It said after a minute.

"Surprise me." The Hat laughed at Peter's statement.

_"If you wish, Pettigrew; well, now it's time for you to join your brethren in- "_

_"HUFFLEPUFF!"_

Peter smiled, "Thank you."

_"Good luck, keep your new friends close." _Peter was still smiling as he took off the old hat and handed it to the old witch who smiled and said to him before calling out the next name:

"Welcome to Hufflepuff House, Mr. Pettigrew."

Peter didn't notice the clapping that accompanied his walk to the Hufflepuff table, or his sixth year brother, Mark, pulling him onto the bench next to him and introducing him to all of the surrounding Hufflepuffs. The only things that he was thinking of were the last words that the Sorting Hat had spoken to him.

_'Why does it think that they're so important?'_ the boy asked himself over and over again as the words echoed in his memory. _'Why?'_

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--James Potter--

_'But I want to be in __Gryffindor__, like Remus and my dad and Perenelle, not some snotty place named after a bird!' _whined James to the hat sitting atop his head. The Sorting Hat snorted.

_"And what exactly do you think a griffin is, Potter?"_

_'Don't change the subject!'_

_"I'm sorry, all decisions are final. You're going there whether you like it or not, boy."_

"Then why do you even have this stupid Sorting anyway?" The Hat shook back and forth sorrowfully with a painful expression.

_"You truly are an idiot, Potter." _

_'Then why're you putting me into that house!?' _James reverted back to communicating with thoughts.

_"Because at the same time you are brilliant…" _James scoffed. _"So let me say: have fun in-_

_"RAVENCLAW!"_

"I hate you," stated James calmly.

_"You're such a sweet boy."_James took off the Hat and handed it to the professor scornfully before making his way over to the Ravenclaw table and sitting down next to the boy who had been Sorted after Lily, the only other boy to be sorted into Ravenclaw so far. Fortescue turned to James as he sat down and proffered a hand.

"Hello, I'm Florean Fortescue," he smiled warmly at James as he and the other boy shook hands. "I'm glad that you're in Ravenclaw too, I was beginning to think that I'd be the only boy here!" He laughed.

_'Hold on…Fortescue? That's the ice cream parlor at Diagon Alley!'_

"Your family doesn't happen to own the ice cream parlor that's at Diagon Alley, does it?" Asked the shorter boy eagerly; for a brief second a flicker of a shadow crossed over Fortescue's face. Sorrow. Then he grinned mischievously and said in a low whisper.

"It does, been in the family since before I was born. Did you know that every time a member of the family has a boy, they have to make at least one of his names Florean? I'm an only child and due to a problem during my birth, my parents can't have any more; so they made my first name Florean instead of Robert like they were planning to." 

"Wow, doesn't it get confusing at family reunions with all of those Florean's running about?" Asked an astounded James, Fortescue shook his head laughing.

"No, there actually aren't a lot of us, the people in my family usually have no more than one or two kids."

"Oh, neat…" Florean raised his eyebrows questioningly at James. "So! How much longer do you think the ceremony is going to last?" asked the boy uncomfortably in an effort to change the subject. The other boy took the hint and began to voice his opinion; the first didn't pay attention to the speculation and instead let his mind wander to the events that had happened since he had gotten his Hogwarts acceptance letter.

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--Severus Snape--

_"RAVENCLAW"_

Severus groaned. "You put me with that arrogant Potter brat!" He accused the Sorting Hat sourly. "I'll get you back for this, I swear…"

The Hat sighed, wistful. _"I remember when great minds were hardly corrupted," _it said.

The lank-haired boy growled. "My mind is not corrupted!"

_"They always say that you know."_

Severus pulled the messy off of his head and stuffed it into the hands of a very put-out Professor Winsawe. "'snot my bloody fault," he muttered before sitting down in the seat across from James.

"What was that?" asked the bespectacled boy. Severus waved the thought of crushing Potter to pulp someday out of his mind. _'Nothing of your concern,'_ he thought, but answered instead:

"Nothing, must have been your imagination, Potter." James furrowed his brow, he was sure that he had seen Severus' lips move and that he had heard something. Severus glanced past James and the other boy who James was now whispering something to. Lily and the sopping wet Black heir were in a heated discussion with a pale blonde girl about something.

_'That must be Narcissa Black. I'll need to soften the other Black up so that he can introduce me_; _if I'm to get anywhere later in life, I'll need to start making the proper connections as soon as possible.'_

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A/N: alright, that's it for chapter three. I'm sorry that it took me so long to update and I hope you like it, twenty-four pages on Microsoft Word and over five thousand words.

Uh, for you people who like Severus Snape, I'm sorry that his section was so short but I couldn't really find a way to work his character through his thoughts, and I'm sorry if you don't like the personality that I've decided to give him – but I'm sticking to it. Don't get me wrong, Snape is one of my favorite characters, but I love seeing him portrayed as the baddie.

I probably won't be able to update for a little while. Um, for those of you who haven't read it on my bio, I'm removing my other story from ff so I can work on this one. I was going to say something else but I forgot what it was, shoot. Oh yeah! The Dumbledore's (Albus and Aberforth) are younger in this story, much younger. And, I've edited the second chapter; it should have xs as line breaks now and some other things should have changed now too, but only trivial things.

Ciao, Nicole.

D


	4. chapter number four

_Quills_

Hello all! Only the characters that you haven't read about in the series are mine, otherwise they belong to J.K. Rowling.

I know that I said that chapter three would speed some things up, but I decided that I really wanted to do a full Sorting scene thing. In this chapter it skipped up to about 11 October, 1971 (please inform me if the year is wrong).

I would like to thank everyone who has reviewed this story so far, especially rekahneko who has been totally awesome and reviewed each chapter. Thanks everyone!

So here's chapter four.

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--Poppy Pomfrey--

_Dear Alastor,_

_Hello love, I'm sorry that I haven't written for so long, I've been too busy to even pick up a quill outside of work; it's astounding how many magical accidents first years can cause in a single week. I was just wondering if you remembered that I told you that Albus was planning on letting a werewolf attend school here. If you don't then I just want to inform you that he has._

_Alastor, please don't fret or cause another uproar at the Ministry, they were the ones who allowed the boy to come here in the first place. And after all, that is just what he is in the end, a perfectly harmless little boy. I'm ashamed to admit that when Albus first told the staff of the boy's admittance here I was frightened out of my wits, not because once a month his life would be in my hands, but because of what my blind prejustice thoughts. I'm sure that in time you'll feel the same way, especially since you think that his father is the only other Auror who's capable of any independent thought. _

_The other day when I was bandaging Remus (that's the boy) up, I decided that I should learn a thing or two about what a werewolf's life is like. So I asked him about his family and he told me that he lives with his mother, father, and older brother who is a seventh year here and captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Apparently his mother is now expecting and will have to go on maternity leave in about five months; she's a Healer at St. Mungo's. As I wrote before, his father is an Auror who works alongside you but reports to you. How about that, eh?_

_Before I put him to bed (which he didn't even protest to like most of the other patients) I asked him what it was like when he was bitten. I thought that you should know how he replied:_

_"I don't really remember all that well to be honest…whenever I try to remember all I can see is the moon from that night." Then he grinned crookedly at me, a habit that he picked up from one of his friends. "I was very young and I can't even remember my age – Mum and Da and Rom refuse to tell me and it's the same with the rest of the family!" He laughed then, and fell backwards onto the mattress. I asked him what was different about the wolf and his answer startled me. "I don't know," he said, his ecstatic smile in place, " I honestly can't remember what it was like to be human…" and I knew that he wished to close the topic and go to sleep._

_That's Remus for you. He's always trying to be optimistic and kind to everyone, he's such a sweet boy. Remus almost always talks in a calm collected manner unless someone brings up the subject of books, school, and most surprisingly, his wolfish past. Alastor I'm telling you that boy sometimes acts just like our dear headmaster, his eyes tend to sparkle and they seem like they can just see into your soul and thoughts. _

_Oh dear, there's been another spill in potions and now the infirmary is filled with quacking students. Love, I have to go. Please owl me as soon as you can, alright? I'll see you at Christmas time, please tell Ethan that I say hello._

_Much love,_

_Poppy _

_11 October, 1971_

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Poppy smiled at the dusty old barn owl as she tied the envelope to his outstretched leg. "Good luck with the trip Odysseus, and don't worry, I'll tell Minerva that I borrowed you for a bit." The old hooted at her before ruffling his feathers and hopping towards the wide open window of the school's infirmary.

The medi-witch laughed with pure exhilaration as the aged creature took flight, she laughed again as it spotted a meal and plunged downwards for the kill.

"Poppy?" the witch jumped at the voice behind her. There was a long suffering sigh as Pomona Sprout leaned an elbow on her friend's shoulder, her mouth twitching into a grin. "You've stolen Min's owl again, haven't you?" Poppy laughed in agreement.

"I really needed to send another letter to Alastor," she playfully defended herself with a pout. "So I have good reason." Pomona rolled her eyes.

"Riiiiiight, like she ever listens to reason that includes you, Odysseus, and your _lovely_ husband."

"Ah but my dear friend that is where you are wrong," proclaimed Poppy triumphantly. "Why it was just the other week that she heard me out."

"Pops, she left after two minutes."

"Bu – but who was I talking to, then?" the Healer asked with frantic eyes.

"Well apparently, it seems that she transfigured our dear History of Magic professor into a doppelganger of herself and stole his wand until you had finished and left."

"Really? Wow, I didn't even notice the difference…you know, she should be the Transfiguration teacher, she's so much better at it than Winsawe." She looked up at her friend with furrowed brows. "Why did she take up the Defense job when she knows that it's jinxed anyhow?"

Pomona flicked Poppy in the side of the head. "Because, you silly dolt, Winsawe hasn't died or retired yet, when she does Minerva will get her job."

"Oh…really now?"

"Yup, and everyone's waiting with baited breath until that sweet day arrives," the Herbology professor smiled wistfully.

"No argument there. Now wish me luck, I have to go ask Minerva if I can borrow her owl."

"But didn't he just take off?"

"Er…yes, well about that…" the smaller woman shifted from foot to foot, finding the stone flooring quite interesting for a few seconds before grinning wildly up at her friend. "Got to go, see ya at lunch!" She raced through the double doors just as a dirt-encrusted Aberforth reached out to open them. The frame slammed into his nose and she called an apology over her shoulder at him as she raced down the otherwise empty corridor.

"Just to let you know, she's in the kitchens!" The wizard hollered as he rubbed the bridge of his long nose. Pomona looked at Aberforth with a scrunched up expression as she caught a wiff of him.

"How the hell did you get so stinky and dirty?" She asked the man. He looked down at her with amusement twinkling in his eyes.

"I've been planting a tree." He replied giddily, hands in his jean pockets, rocking on the balls of his feet.

"Really? You?" Her eyes widened in sarcastic amazement. "What type?" The wizard grinned at her devilishly.

"A willow."

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--Lily Evens--

"_WHAT!_" Lily's shriek echoed off the damp stone walls of the Slytherin common room. People glared at her for disturbing the rare peaceful quiet, she just ignored them and continued to leer at Sirius who alone seemed completely unfazed by her reaction. "Sirius you moron, that's only three days away!"

"I know," the boy was immensely pleased with himself for some absurd reason unknown to mankind.

"Would you stop grinning like an idiot!" she snapped at him as she turned on her heel and stormed to the door leading out. "C'mon, we need to find the others before lunch ends." Sirius shrugged and followed her lead.

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As they passed by the kitchens they saw Madam Pomfrey leaning over with her hands on her knees, panting and her hair coming out of its usually tight bun. McGonagall stood before her looking worried about something, her black bangs tucked behind her ears.

" – gone missing again, Poppy." She peered suspiciously at her colleague. "You took him again didn't you?" she accused. Pomfrey nodded and collapsed on the floor, McGonagall didn't seem to notice. "Great, perfect, I'd just finished my letter to Ceres and John too…"

The two witches disappeared from view as the two Slytherins rounded a corner. _'Wonder what that was about…'_ Next to her Sirius shook his head smiling.

"Ahh, the antics of boarding school teachers," he murmured quietly, Lily peered curiously at him from the corner of her eye.

"Right. Lets hurry it up; we've only got thirty minutes to inform the others of our Black-induced dilemma."

"Thirty minutes!" Sirius slid to a stop. "Lily, that's forever!"

"No," she countered impatiently, also stopping, "that's half an hour."

"But we've still got ages to tell them."

"We need time to find them if they aren't in the Great Hall."

"We could just ask someone if they knew where they went," argued the boy.

"I know, Sirius, but I just want to find and tell them quickly."

"Whatever," he grumbled, "but we're not running like we would in a marathon."

"Fine," she agreed with a dark scowl.

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"_WHAT!?_" The pumpkin juice that had previously been in Remus Lupin's mouth was now dripping down the semi-annoyed faces of James Potter and Peter Pettigrew, both of whom were seated across the table from him. Next to Remus, Severus Snape was howling in laughter at the expense of the two boys; Remus himself wasn't paying attention to that; he was staring horrified at the faces of his two Slytherin friends.

"You git, that's only three days off!" He hollered at Sirius.

"That's almost word for word what flower-girl said," he replied happily. Lily glared at the boy for several seconds before turning to the werewolf again.

"Sorry that you weren't told before now, I just found out myself." Remus silently shook his head.

"We should each keep a list of when each other's birthdays are until we remember." He suggested to the others. They nodded their agreement.

"You'll need these in that case," said Romulus as he passed by the place where they sat. He lazily waved his wand as he walked on, conjuring a piece of parchment, quill, and inkwell on the table between them.

"Thanks, Rom!" his little brother called after him. "I'll bring them back up to your dorm later!"

"Don't bother, bro, they're Nelle's!"

"No wonder the quill's pink," mused Sirius as he inspected the object in his hands.

"Right," James rubbed his hands together, "down to business then."

"But I'm still eating!" protested Peter past a mouthful of Cornish pasty. Severus rolled his eyes at the small Hufflepuff.

"You can go back to eating after you've written down your birthday, Peter."

"_Anyway_," said James loudly, "I'll write it down." He drew the paper towards himself, snatched the writing utensil, dipped the pink quill into the inkwell, and began scribbling...

_Messrs. Potter, Black, Lupin, Pettigrew, Snape and Evens_

_Are Proud to Present:_

_Their Birthdays!_

"Eh hem," Lily cleared her throat and turned her vivid green eyes pointedly on James. "Potter, in case you didn't notice, you made a mistake."

"Really? Where?" The boy asked with a furrowed brow as he searched the heading for the problem.

"You put me down as a Messer, I'm a girl."

James shrugged, "so?" he asked. "What's the point if it's only ever going to be us seeing the parchment?" Lily snorted but backed down from the argument, realizing that it would go nowhere if she continued.

_Messer. Potter – 27 March, 1960_

_Messer. Black – 14 October, 1959_

_Messer. Lupin – 12 November, 1959_

_Messer. Pettigrew – 3 August, 1960_

_Messer. Snape – 28 February, 1960_

_Miss. Evens – 30 January, 1960_

Satisfied with the list, James rewrote it five more times and tore off one for each of the others, they pocketed it almost immediately.

"Well now that that's done, we have to go get ready for classes, we have double potions with Slughorn next," announced Remus somberly, he truly disliked potions class, probably because his potion always blew up.

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so that's chapter four, sorry that it's so short.

A/N: those are James and Lily's real birthdays in the books, according to page 328 of Deathly Hallows. I'll try to get chapter five up soon, I just need to plan it.

Ciao – Nicole! D

ps- i'm putting up a poll to see what readers think about mpreg.


	5. chapter number five

Quills

Chapter five

By justification to wormtail

XXX

A/N: okay so maybe the story isn't as far off from the books as I had originally planned, but it's still different. I have yet to read any stories about the marauders in which Remus, Sirius, Lily or James were put into Slytherin, although I have read one about them when Peter was in that house.

Sorry that it's taken me this long to update.

Here's chapter five! 

**XXX**

_"Dad!?" A young woman with dirty-blonde hair pulled back into a messy bun looked up from the small child that she was holding as she heard her younger sister's exclamation. "Father, we hadn't expected you for at least another year or two," the sister's voice had changed drastically from surprise to a cold hatred._

_"Don't act that way, Minerva," said a broad shouldered man as he came up behind the black haired woman. She was quaking in anger. He turned to the older man who had appeared over a knoll just moments before. "Although he must have some good reason for coming here so off schedule," he sneered._

_"Would you two please stop," snapped the newcomer. "I didn't ask for it to happen you know."_

_"You kicked me out of the house," accused Minerva._

_"I had to," said her father through gritted teeth. "It was for your own safety."_

_"I'm only fifteen, Dad! You can't just boot me out onto the curb."_

_"I knew that you would come to your sister's house," he explained firmly._

_"That doesn't mean that you're welcome here, Father," the blonde woman spoke for the first time. Mr. Prewett turned to look at his oldest daughter._

_"Ceres please don't start," he begged. "I just wanted to see my children and my grandchildren before __they__ catch up with me. Please?"_

_"Why should I let you anywhere near Remus and Romulus, they've been through enough with having you as their grandfather," she snapped._

_"Look, I haven't done anything of that sort in years!"_

_"Oh really," said Minerva, her voice dripping sarcasm, "then why are they after you now? Decide to put off a grudge for a couple of years did they?"_

_"Please just let me see them one last time!" the old man pleaded. "All of them," he added as his eyes rested on his son. The black haired man growled and cast his father a hateful look._

_"Fine, but keep in mind that I'm only doing this for Mum," he grumbled before grabbing Minerva by the wrist and dragging her along with him towards a cottage that stood just beyond the trees of the forest. Ceres mutely went about rubbing some dirt off of her sons face as she held back angry tears. The five-year-old stared at the man who he'd hardly met before with wide eyes._

_"So your mother's here too?" asked the man after a few moments of uncomfortable silence._

_"Yes," was the curt answer._

_"Will she come out to see me?" his voice was hopeful. Ceres sighed and set Remus down, she cast a sideways glance at her father before answering._

_"Probably," she sounded frustrated, "even after what you did to her…she still loves you."_

_The man just nodded in response._

--The scene changed--

_"Mama?"_

_"Yes little one?"_

_The boy sniffed and clung to his mother even tighter as he began to cry. "M scared…"_

_"Shh, it's alright little one. We're going to be okay, everything's going to be alright." Ceres whispered to her son. There was a strangled cry from next landing down. A long joyous howl of a successful hunt pierced the night sky. Minerva bit her lip and let the tears flow as she wondered which of her family members fell. She moved the five other children farther away from the door. _

_"Ceres, what about Dad?" she asked in a hushed tone. Ceres groaned and gazed out the only window in the room, the traitorous full moon illuminating the pitch-black night. _

"_Let him fend for himself, he's got a wand and some sense left," she drew her son closer as another howl sounded. "And besides," she added, sounding scornful, "he's the one who got us into this mess in the first place."_

"_Okay…" a second later, "but what about Mum and Bacchus and Adelle?" _

"_OH NO!" Remus suddenly screamed. Everything went quiet but the five-year-old failed to notice. "Mama, Auntie – they'll get my teddy bear! We've gotta go back and save him, he's the one that Grandma gave me!" _

"_WHAT!?" Minerva screeched. "Remus you can't go out there for a teddy bear!" Remus sniffed again and glared at his aunt through his tears._

"_But they'll rip him up," he protested._

"_Remus honey, Auntie Minerva's right, you can't go out there," Ceres said softly. "Poppa and Uncle Bacchus are taking care of it." A shadow of fear passed over his face._

"_Are Grandma and Granddad and Mommy helping too?" asked Marielle as she started to walk towards her aunt and cousin. There was a shriek of pain from the area of the kitchen, the occupants of the room either flinched or stiffened as they cried. Gideon and Fabian lashed out, grabbing their younger cousin around the waist and pulling her back to them. The nine-year-old struggled against their hold but subsided when Molly yanked on her braid and told her that it was a couple of werewolves that were scouring the house._

"_Mum?"_

"_Yes Romulus," Ceres answered her older son with exasperation._

"_When are they going to give the signal?"_

"_When the wolves are distracted," his aunt answered stiffly. There was the sound of scraping by the door. "Remus," Minerva whispered frantically, "go over to Romulus, __now__!" Ceres let go of her son and nudged him in the direction of his brother and cousins. Before anybody in the room could move a muscle Remus was at the door, with his hands clutching the knob defiantly._

"_Poppa could be on the other side!" he cried. The two adults were frozen in shock but Marielle raced to her cousin's side and put her hands over his. _

"_Or it could be Mommy!"_

_Ceres ran forward and snatched her niece up, she went over to the others and ordered them to each grab hold of her and not to let go. Just as Minerva reached Remus the door was flung open, a huge grey wolf lunged at the small boy. Everybody in the room shrieked as the two were sent flying to the pine flooring._

"_NOW!!__" _

_The bellow rang throughout the entire house and Ceres hesitated for an instant before remembering the other children. With a loud crack the woman and five children were gone, leaving Minerva fumbling for her wand. _

_There was a crash and Minerva looked up to see her brother-in-law standing in the doorway, bloody and disheveled and staring at a spot behind her in horror. The fifteen-year-old witch spun around just in time to see the wolf sink its teeth into Remus's right side._

"Let's go Abe…" Aberforth nodded as Minerva put her hand under his arm and he felt himself rising, the scene before him dissolved into the candle lit office reserved for the DADA teacher. They just stood there for a long time as the witch tried to compose herself.

"What happened to everybody?" he asked softly. Minerva stared at the penseive with puffy red eyes, for a minute she didn't speak.

"My oldest sister, Ceres, she disapparated with all of the children except for Remus, she still regrets not picking him up along with Marielle but she just wouldn't have been able to hold both of them at the same time. John managed to get the werewolf off of his son and Bacchus, my brother and the oldest one of us, he called the Ministry and Healers from St. Mungo's over…"

She moved over to her desk chair and sat down, motioning Aberforth into the chair across from her as she did so. "What happened to your parents and Adelle?" he questioned. Minerva let out a suffering sigh.

"Well, Adelle died along with my mother that night," she said, "and my father went mad knowing that he was the cause of it all." She gave a short, bitter laugh then. "Poor little Adelle, she was always his favorite daughter…she always forgave him instantly no matter what it was he did. And mind you all those bad things could fill a novel."

"Oh, so how long were you hiding from the werewolves?"

"Ten minutes at most, but they found all thirteen of us in about five and then Adelle and Mum were dead in another five and Dad was crazy as soon as Mum's body hit the floor. Then John and Bacchus were almost skinned alive and Remus was shouting about his teddy and everything was just a sodding mess!" she took a calming breath and gazed at a framed picture that was sitting directly in front of her. "Marielle's an orphan now, her father died the day after he found out that Adelle was pregnant."

"How?"

"Suicide," Minerva answered curtly. "He wasn't ready for fatherhood yet."

"Oh…" Aberforth though for a moment, he gave a crooked half-smile. "Your family's a bit tragic you know."

"Shut-up, now isn't the time for jokes," the witch snapped, "you wanted to know how it happened so I showed you."

"Right, sorry wrong time," he agreed. "What time is it though?" Minerva glanced at a wooden clock that was sitting next to the picture frame. Her eyes widened.

"Late!" she scrambled out of her seat and towards the door. "Time for classes, got to go, see ya at dinner, bye!" The door slammed shut behind her leaving a baffled Aberforth sitting in a fluffy red armchair as the candles about him flickered and died.

**XXXX**

--James Potter--

"_WooHoo!_" James threw his fists up in triumph as he danced around the Ravenclaw common room. Some of the working students exchanged amused glances while others glared at the offending first year. "Com'n Sevie, we've got friends ta be a'meetin!"

"And what exactly do you mean by that Potter?" asked the greasy haired boy without looking up from his textbook.

"We've got to go down to the Quidditch pitch today," James answered with a grin. "We're finally allowed to fly the brooms!"

"It's just a practice though," Florean put in as he began to pack up his supplies. "And I hear that the school brooms are pretty bad."

"I don't care how bad the stupid things are as long as they get up into the air!" said James as he opened the door leading out of the vast room. "Now _come on_ you two, I told Peter that we'd meet him by the Great Hall."

"Right behind you my friend," Florean said jovially as he hefted a scowling Severus out of his wooden chair. "Now move it Snape!" he pushed his dorm mate out the door, past James who was holding it open.

James and Florean bounded and laughed through the hallways in a race to see who could reach the Great Hall first, Severus just sighed and stared forlornly in the direction from which they had come.

"At least Lily will be there," he muttered as he slouched after the other two Ravenclaws.

**XXXX**

Okay so that's chapter five. I've had that idea for how Remus got bitten for a long time and decided to put it in the story through Minerva's thoughts in a penseive. Also it's a way to show the growing relationship between the two teachers.

I'll try to be quicker with the next update, ciao – Nicole!


	6. chapter number six

Quills

Chapter six.

A/N: I'm entirely pissed at myself right now, I tend to read fanfiction for too long and forget about my homework and stories until my mother, brother, or father barge into the computer room to do their stuff and whatnot. Sorry, here's the next chapter. Oh yeah, the beginning is a broken-up and rearranged excerpt from DH.

Disclaimer: I don't own most of the word order from this first section or most of the characters in the fic all together.

.XXX.

--Lily Evens--

_"Lily, don't do it!" Petunia shrieked in horror as her sister launched herself off of her swing at the very height of its arc. The redheaded girl flew through the air with a great shout of laughter, and instead of crumpling on the playground asphalt, she soared like a trapeze artist through the air, staying up far too long and landing far too lightly._

_"Mummy told you not to!" Petunia stopped her swing by dragging the heels of her sandals on the ground. "Mummy said you weren't allowed, Lily!"_

_"But I'm fine," said Lily, still giggling. "Tuney, look at this. Watch what I can do." Lily had picked up a fallen flower from a nearby bush, Petunia advanced, evidently torn between curiosity and disapproval. The younger waited until her sister was near enough to have a clear view, then held out her palm. The flower sat there, opening and closing its petals, like some bizarre, many-lipped oyster._

_Petunia watched in shock for a few seconds before adopting a frightened expression. "Stop it!" she shrieked. Lily looked crestfallen._

_"It's not hurting you, Tuney," she mumbled, closing her hand on the blossom and throwing it back to the ground._

_"How do you do it?" asked Petunia with a trace of longing in her voice. _

_"It's obvious, isn't it?" Petunia shrieked again and ran backward towards the swings as the boy who had spoken rolled his eyes. He was skinny, his stringy black hair overlong and clothes so mismatched that it looked deliberate: too short jeans, a shabby, overlarge coat that might have belonged to a grown man, and an odd smock-like shirt. He had been hiding behind the clump of bushes._

_"What's obvious?" asked Lily as she took a tentative step forward._

_"I know what you are," the boy whispered with an air of nervous excitement._

_"And what would that be?" asked Petunia sourly as she came up behind her sister. The boy glared at her and she back. "What do you mean, Snape?" Snape ignored her and turned to the redhead._

_"You're a witch."_

.XXX.

Lily shrugged. "And that's how it happened," she said in a bored voice.

"Really?" asked Sirius curiously. "So that's why you were so friendly towards Snape on the train and how you knew each others' names." The other Slytherin nodded mutely. "Why are you still friends with him?" Lily looked up at him, furious.

"_Because_," she seethed, green eyes blazing, "he's my best friend_. _You should just except that, Sirius, you're supposed to be my friend too." Sirius looked startled.

"Lily!" he exclaimed. "I _am_ your friend!"

"I know," she said softly, slipping off his bed and taking with her a deep emerald blanket. She sighed and turned back to her friend. "I know that Sirius…but I don't see what you have against Sev, he's an okay guy, sure he might hate my sister's guts but the feeling's mutual there. He hasn't done anything to you _or_ the others."

Sirius sighed deeply and fell back against his pillows. "It's in his eyes, Lily. Just look into his eyes tomorrow at breakfast and you'll figure it out." Lily shook her head despairingly before leaving the room for her own dorm right across the stone hall. The black haired boy sighed again; he got up and left the room too, but headed in the completely opposite direction.

"I really should tell James that I found the kitchens," he muttered to himself as he walked through the dimly lit common room. "They've been looking for them long enough…"

.XXX.

--Perenelle Potter--

Perenelle was staring absent-mindedly at the orange beeswax candle flickering before her; the N.E.W.T. level Divination class was supposed to be reading both the flame and the candle itself to see what the future held in store for them. Personally the seventeen-year-old witch thought that it was a complete waste of time, but she couldn't say that out loud considering that most of this years' class were firm believers. She sighed out loud, ignoring the many scowls that were sent her way.

"Thanks so much for abandoning me guys," she muttered sourly as she thought of her best friends, none of them were in the class with her and none of them had bothered to inform her of that until they had received their schedules. Even _Gideon_ had baled on her and the fool pretty much worshiped the ground that she walked on! "I really do hate school."

Another five minutes passed and the wick of the candle still wasn't scorched. The redhead looked across the table at her partner, a seventh year Hufflepuff with blonde pigtails popping out the side of her head. Perenelle grinned at the expression on her friend's face: horrified.

_'Only fools believe in crap like this,'_ she thought. _'But then again, it is quite convincing sometimes. I should believe it, I'm a living example.' _She snorted and Jaycee's head snapped up from her own purple candle. The Hufflepuff's eyes were brimmed with tears as she frowned at Perenelle.

"First off, this is not crap, I'm not an idiot, and _don't look at me like that! _I've known you for seven years and well enough to know what that stupid expression means!" She looked back down at her candle and Perenelle did the same, her eyes widened in shock. The candle's flame had flared and shot down the length of the wick, the wax wasn't melting though and it looked like the candle was glowing from the inside out.

"Open your book to page five hundred forty-four," Jaycee whispered. Perenelle complied.

_Reading Charmed Candles_

_Meaning of the Signs_

_Flame in the shape of a dove – you will soon experience a great love._

_Flame retains normal un-charmed shape – danger is lurking._

_Flame grows twice fold within a minute of lighting –mediocre tragedy soon to be experienced._

_Flame in the shape of a flower – good luck awaits you._

_Flame in the shape of a cloud – happiness is nearer the smaller the cloud._

_Flame constantly switches colors – bad luck in your occupation._

_Flame in the shape of a crooked cross – trials and suffering._

_Flame in the shape of the sun – great joy for a short period of time._

_Flame in the shape of an acorn – unexpected gold._

And so it went on, Perenelle scanned the page three times before finding the one she was looking for.

_Flame travels the down the wick, not causing the candle to melt, but glow – an omen worse than the Grim, it means not death to you but massacre almost to the point of (attempted) __genocide._

Perenelle gasped and looked up into the Jaycee's apologetic face.

"Do you believe it this time, Nell?"the Hufflepuff asked nervously.

"Sadly…yes…I do," the Gryffindor answered quietly. "Over the summer I had another one, I told my parents about it and they told the Wizengamot and all and nobody believed me. Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster, he told me that it would take time for people to accept what I had seen because it was so unbelievable coming from some girl still in school.

"He's the only one besides my family who believes me one bit…James overheard me telling Mum and Dad and even he believes it!" Perenelle slumped back in her chair as she sulked.

Jaycee frowned at her. "Nell, what is _it_?"

"Some, _thing,_ that calls itself Lord Voldemort is planning to either exterminate or rule over all Muggles and Muggle-born witches and wizards," she grumbled, Jaycee's eyes widened in shock, "and planning on having control of the entire wizarding community no matter what. I doesn't even matter to him how many living things he has to kill in order to achieve his ultimate goal, he'll try till the very end."

"Really?" the Muggle-born Hufflepuff's lower lip began trembling. "I don't want my f-family to d-die!" she wailed, momentarily forgetting where she was. The entire class stared at them in bewilderment as Jaycee broke-down and began sobbing in the middle of the lesson.

.XXX.

Yay, Cliffhanger! Although not as bad as chapter four's. Hehe, uh, sorry for that one…

Hope that you get the hint with Perenelle now and what that little scene between the Potter siblings meant in chapter two. If you don't then just inform me and I'll explain it at the beginning of chapter seven. Sorry that this isn't going faster than it should be.

Ciao, Nicole

:D


	7. chapter number seven

Quills

**Disclaimer: most of it isn't mine**

Sorry that it's taking me so long to update.

There will be some slashy bits next chapter.

Ellesra, thanks so much for reviewing every chapter!

Same to you rekahneko,

:D

Chapter seven!

.XXX.

--Peter Pettigrew--

"Do you know where Remus is? I need to ask him something."

"No, Peter, go away."

"But you _must_ know! You're his cousin!"

"Just because I'm related to the kid doesn't mean that I know where he is every second of the day."

"Fine. Who would know then?"

"Romulus."

"Romulus?"

Marielle groaned and hit her head with her Ancient Runes textbook. Peter turned around to see his older brother, Mark, walking up to him and Remus' cousin with James. The Ravenclaw boy smiled widely and waved at his friend whereas Mark ignored his sibling completely, instead keeping his eyes trained on Marielle as she glowered at him and began packing up her things.

"What are you talking about Lupin for?" questioned Mark with a slight frown.

"None of your business, Pettigrew," she sneered. His eyes narrowed slightly.

"I think it is."

"How can it be your problem? It's not like I've actually ever accepted or anything," she muttered. "Now go away and talk about Quidditch with your mates or something."

"Nah," he replied, dismissing what the Hufflepuff said with a wave of his hand. "Got better things to do."

"Like what?" asked Peter with unique curiosity. This was one of the first chances that he had to talk to his brother since the Sorting. Mark was always busy; trying to discuss game tactics with the captain of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team (he was the Keeper), studying for tests and quizzes and doing homework, or just hanging around with his huddle of friends.

Mark spared Peter a half-glance. "Nothing for your age group," he replied. Peter sighed deeply and made to walk away. "So…Hogsmeade weekend tomorrow," he heard his brother saying.

"I've told you a million times before, Pettigrew," Marielle ground out, "_I'm not interested_."

The blonde laughed and sat down next to her. "One day you will be!"

"Only if 'one day' in your language translates into 'when Hell freezes over' in mine," she retorted sourly. Peter was walking farther away but James put a hand on his shoulder and shook his head, signaling that he wanted to stay for a bit longer. Listen to the banter, he explained later, nothing more entertaining than a good battle of words…other than pulling a prank that is.

Mark laughed again, but his smile didn't reach his eyes. "So why precisely where you talking about Lupin with my little brother?" His voice was alight with implications. Marielle looked revolted.

"That's disgusting!" She exclaimed loudly. Several heads turned in their direction. "He's my _cousin_ you bloody pervert!"

"Je t'aime trop, sweetie," he replied, grin growing.

James leaned over and whispered in Peter's ear, "I didn't know that your brother speaks French."

"He told me that he learned because girls _'think it's sensitive and romantic'_," Peter maimed gagging. James looked thoughtful and sneaked a quick glance at the Slytherin table.

"I don't know," he muttered more to himself than his friend, "maybe I'll take a leaf out of his book sometime…" Peter let his mouth fall open in disbelief.

_'SMACK!'_

The noise echoed throughout the Great Hall, now everybody watched as Marielle stormed out of the room, fuming.

"Damn, que du mal!" Mark exclaimed loudly, clutching his left cheek. It had a bright red mark in the shape of a hand.

"What did he say?" asked James heatedly. Peter frowned at him.

"How am I supposed to know," he grumbled, "I never said that _I_ speak French."

"Well that doesn't help matters," James said, Peter looked at him quizzically. "You know," James prompted, motioning with his hands, "you were looking for Remus…I was looking for Sirius…"

"Oh. Right. Well if we find one we find the other," Peter shrugged. "But what does that have to do with what we were talking about?"

James's brow creased slightly. "I have no idea," he eventually muttered, "but let's go check the library, if Remus isn't there, I don't know where else to look."

.XXX.

--Sirius Black--

(forty minutes before)

"D'you know where Remus is?"

"Dorm room…"

"Thanks, see ya later!"

"Uh huh," Fabian didn't look up from his book as Sirius turned heel and bolted out of the library. He turned the page, silently wondering whether or not Gideon and Romulus had told the Slytherin the password again.

(after five minutes of constant running)

"B – by – wha – ter," Sirius panted. The Fat Lady portrait smirked at him.

"What was that, dear? Didn't quite catch it…" He glared at her.

"I said: Bywater. The _password_."

"I'm sorry," she replied in a sickly-sweet voice. "But that was last week's. Professor Dumbledore changed it yesterday." Let's just say that the Fat Lady wasn't exactly _fond _of the Slytherin.

"Which Dumbledore?" asked Sirius frantically; he really needed to ask Remus something before Peter could. She raised an eyebrow.

"Why does it matter?"

"Because Headmaster Dumbledore loves sweets and Care of Magical Creatures Dumbledore loves, well, magical creatures…and goats…"

"True," she admitted reluctantly, "but why should I tell you? You're a Slytherin."

"Because I have a _really, really _important question that I need to ask one of my friends and he's a Gryffindor," Sirius explained frantically.

"Can't you just wait and ask him when he comes down?"

"NO!"

"And why is that?"

"I need to ask him before one of my other friends can," Sirius whined. The portrait rolled her eyes, muttering something about "kids these days…" Sirius huffed and crossed his arms. If he had to wait all morning for Remus to come down for breakfast and lessons, he would.

"Leonardo Da Vinci."

The first year spun around at the voice only to find himself face to chest with Molly Prewett. He quickly looked up at her face, feeling his own turn a bright red. The sixth year chuckled at him.

"You know," she said thoughtfully, "I weren't so convinced that you're gay I might've given you a good wallop for being so damn dense."

"How does me being gay stop you from hitting me for being stupid," Sirius scowled, "and I'm _not_ _gay!_ Why does everybody keep suggesting that I am?" Molly looked at him shrewdly.

"Somebody else called you gay?" She asked. Sirius nodded glumly. "Who?"

Sirius sneered as he answered, "Albrey Arkness and Charing Inkel. The two other boys in Slytherin first year." Molly scowled.

"If they do that again," she said, "tell me, I'll put them right."

Sirius shook his head. "No way! I can fight my own battles," he said, "and besides, Remus already did that…" Before Molly could respond the Fat Lady interrupted.

"Yoo-hoo," she called irritably. "You used the password, aren't you going to go through?"

"Oh," said Molly, eyes widening, "right. C'mon, Black." She grabbed Sirius's wrist and slipped through the portrait hole, which swung shut behind them as the Fat Lady muttered bitterly to herself.

"Not _again_!"

Molly put on an innocent face as Rudolf Brand, a sixth year prefect, flitted over to them. She kicked Sirius in the shin, which he took that as a sign to move behind her. "What again, Brand?" she asked, looking up at the taller Gryffindor with wide eyes.

Brand motioned with his head that he knew Sirius was behind her. "Prewett, how many times do I have to tell you, Potter, Lupin, and your brothers _not _to let a Slytherin into the common room? _Even_," he added to Sirius, who had stepped out from behind Molly, "if they have dire need to speak to a friend."

"Well you can't really tell the others what not to do," said Molly impatiently. "They're higher up than you, older and wiser."

The prefect quirked an eyebrow at her. "Not if they're letting members of other houses into our own. The common rooms are supposed to be hidden." He said and peered over their shoulders. "Ah yes, here's Lupin now." Molly and Sirius turned around to see Romulus clambering through the portrait hole, arms laden with countless library books.

"I – hate – this – stupid – _castle_!" Romulus grunted as he struggled to keep upright. With a deep groan he let go of the books, content on letting them clatter noisily to the wooden floor. "What in the name of Merlin convinced Gryffindor to set up the common room on the seventh floor when the bloody library's all the way down on the fourth?" he muttered to himself, nudging one of the books disdainfully with his toe.

"Ehm," Brand cleared his throat; Romulus looked up, obviously startled to find that there were other people in the vast, circular room. "Nice to see that you're finally with us, Lupin."

"Meh," Romulus waved his hand vaguely. "Whatever you're going to chastise me about this time, Brand, don't even bother with it. I've never really paid much attention anyways." He yawned widely. "Now if you will excuse me, I'm off to bed…"

"Uhh, Rom?" said Molly apprehensively. "It's seven-thirty in the morning."

Romulus shrugged as if this information held no importance.

"Lessons start in forty minutes…"

The Gryffindor grinned widely at her. "Maybe for you they do," he said, "but I've got an entirely different schedule being a year ahead and all." Molly sighed and rolled her eyes. She knew most of Hogwarts' seventh year students thanks to her brothers and cousin, and the Gryffindors in that year made sure to never let her forget that they were older, always in a jesting manner though.

"Right. I just forgot with you always being so immature and all."

"Hey now, you were in on that prank too and didn't even lift a finger to put a stop to it." He shook his head in mock disappointment. "For shame, Miss Prewett, for shame."

"Look," said Brand firmly, "you two stop trying to distract me from the matter at hand right now. And that just happens to be something in which the both of you are involved, as well as Bl – " He looked around, noticing Sirius' abrupt disappearance. After a moment of darting around the common room and annoying a great number of fellow Gryffindors, he squinted up at Romulus' smug face.

"Oh you're good…"

.XXX.

Ok, I have to admit, this chapter's pretty boring. It didn't end the way I had originally intended

it to, but I didn't want to exceed a certain number of words. Now I am trying to equalize the

amount of words in a chapter, but please tell me if this one's too short.

It may be a bit before I can update again, sorry.

-Nicole

.XXX.

What the French is _supposed_ to mean:

Je t'aime trop, sweetie - I love you too, sweetie

Damn, que du mal - Damn, that hurt


	8. chapter number eight

Quills

I hate writer's block, because of it I couldn't think of a way to incorporate the thing with Perenelle into the story…it will be in this one though. I'm trying to focus on this story right now as well as _This is How I Disappear,_ but it's difficult seeing as I've just gotten a completely odd idea for a new story that I like rather a lot and I've been writing it down in my notebook. And I've been fighting the urge to type it up and post it on FF.

So my mind's been wandering quite a bit. Bleh…you didn't really need to know that, did you?

As I said last chapter: there'll be some slashy bits this time.

**Disclaimer: it belongs to JK Rowling and the Beatles** (I love the Beatles and just had to put in part of one of their songs, it should in the correct time range though …)

.xxx.

--Sirius Black--

_'Ha! Stupid mudblood git of a Gryffindor!' _Sirius laughed as he ran up the spiral staircase, eventually stopping at the second-from-top level where he knew the first year dormitory was located. _'Wait till Remus hears this!' _The Slytherin paused for a moment, catching his breath, before throwing open the wooden door and barging into the circular room.

"_What in the name of Mer_ – Black! What are you doing here? "

His grin grew at the sight of the three shocked boys, each in various states of undress, staring at him with wide eyes and open mouths.

"Lovely morning isn't it?" he asked brightly. "Don't know why you lot weren't up earlier--must be a Gryffindor thing--anyway!" the Slytherin cleared his throat and looked expectantly at the boy closest to him. "Longbottom, do you know where Remus is?"

Frank Longbottom, the boy who had spoken earlier, mutely lifted his arm and pointed at another wooden door that led to, Sirius assumed, the bathroom.

"Thank ye very much, simpleton!" Frank frowned at term that Sirius used with him rather frequently. _'Well let's face it; he isn't exactly the brightest bulb in the box…'_

There were muffled noises coming from behind the door, mixing with the sound of running water. Like a voice. "I wouldn't go in there if I were you," said another one of the sleep-ruffled boys.

Sirius scowled at him. "Why's that, Shacklebolt?"

"Because," the boy replied through a yawn, "he's taking a shower."

"Oh. And what's that for a reason not to go in?"

The last boy sneered. "Because you're a Slytherin." Sirius rolled his eyes. "But he's also got some sort of privacy issue or something like that." Sirius let out a breath and glanced around the messy room with obvious disdain. "He won't speak to you for a while if you do go in there. So I would just leave if I were you, back to your rightful place."

"No need to worry about that," Sirius waved his hand dismissively. "I'm Sirius Black. Nobody can resist my charm for long." At this Shacklebolt and the third boy exchanged a glance. Frank scowled at the Slytherin as he thought of something.

"How did you even get up here again?" he asked. "Professor McGonagall put a charm on the Fat Lady to stop you from coming in. I _saw_ her doing it." Sirius grinned wickedly at him.

"Like I said before, Longbottom, nobody can resist _my _charm." With that he threw open the bathroom door and disappeared inside. It slammed shut behind him.

.xxx.

"--do appreciate you being round.  
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,  
Won't you please, please help me?

And now my life has changed in oh so many ways,  
My independence seems to vanish in the haze--"

Sirius smirked and walked up to the curtain pulled across one of the shower stalls. He threw it back and beamed at his friend. "What cha singing, Rem?"

"_AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!_"

Remus snatched the scarlet fabric from Sirius' hand and yanked it shut. "_What the hell is wrong with you, Sirius?"_ He yelled through the curtain. "You don't just sneak up on people while they're taking a shower!"

"Well honestly now," Sirius huffed, "I thought that you'd be happy to see me."

"_What?"_The werewolf's scarred face appeared scowling and beet red around the curtain. "Sirius, the last time that I saw you was an hour after dinner last night. That's not long enough to use as an excuse to barge into Gryffindor Tower, my dormitory, _and_ my shower!"

Sirius huffed again in reply.

"Go wait in the Great Hall. I'll be down in ten minutes. And don't you ever do this _ever again!_"

The Black heir's scowl deepened. "Just a bit of fun…" he muttered as he stalked out of the room, past the other first year boys, who were laughing hysterically. "Oh shut up!"

.xxx.

"Merlin Sirius, what got your knickers in a twist?"

Sirius glared at James after he said those words. Peter stopped chewing his slice of toast midway to watch the unfolding scene with interest. James looked at both of them and shrugged as though implying innocence.

"Just asking," he said, snatching an apple off of the Slytherin's plate and taking a bite.

"Why are you even here?" Sirius asked in an uninterested tone, putting down his fork of eggs and shoving his plate to the center of the table. "Didn't you and Peter already eat?"

The Potter shrugged. "The other Ravenclaw's already consumed most of the food and Peter didn't want to be around that weird kid from his dorm."

"Why didn't you go sit with Lily then?"

"Because she's surrounded by all of those other girls from the Snake Nest."

The glare grew even more pronounced.

"Is it really necessary to call my house that?"

"Yes."

"Right. So you'd be from the Bald Brigade, then?"

"..._what?"_

The Black rolled his eyes. "Ravenclaw's symbol is a _bald_ eagle, like the U.S.s'."

"Ah…"

"Yeah. Haven't you ever noticed that?"

"Shut up, Black." Sirius smiled smugly and filched the apple from the other boy's grasp. "Hey!"

"It was mine to begin with anyway."

"What was yours?" Sirius whirled around in his seat to find Remus directly in front of him, school things ready in his bag, peering quizzically at his friend.

"Nothing," Sirius said quickly, getting up and grabbing the lycanthrope by the elbow. "Come on Remus; let's go somewhere private." Before the smaller boy could protest, he was dragged off. Peter and James exchanged a glance before the latter got up as well and went off in the direction of the Gryffindor table. He needed to speak with his sister.

.xxx.

"Sirius, why are we out here?"

"Because it's a beautiful morning."

"It's _freezing_, how's that beautiful?"

"Well you knew that it would be cold, why aren't you wearing a jacket? Or gloves?"

"I had planned on staying inside all day, taking full advantage of the fact that I don't have any outdoor classes on Fridays." Sirius smiled fondly at his friend and draped an arm around his shoulders.

"When you're with me, my friend," he said, using a smirk that only a Black could pull off, "expect the unexpected." Remus smiled at him and shrugged out of the boy's hold.

"I'll try to keep that in mind," he shivered slightly and turned around, heading in the opposite direction. "Come on Sirius, let's go to the greenhouses." Sirius frowned slightly, but followed suit, stuffing his numb hands into his overcoat's large pockets.

"Why?" the Slytherin asked as he caught up.

Remus answered as he opened the door. "Because it's actually _warm_in here and it's still outdoors. Also," he added, walking farther into the building and looking around at the numerous plants, "I just remembered that Professor Sprout asked me to pay more attention to my Floridium, it's uh, not doing as well as the rest of the classes…" Sirius grinned.

"I could help you with that."

"Sorry, different greenhouse," the werewolf replied distractedly.

"Then why are we in this one?"

"Produce. Hagrid and Professor Sprout grow the school's fruits and vegetables in here during the winter." Remus walked over to a small grouping of trees at the other end and began to search them. "My Aunt Minerva, she's our DADA professor, told me that I was allowed to take some for breakfast some time if I didn't have any otherwise. Her only rule was _'don't get caught'_." He walked back to Sirius and held out an oddly large plum. "Here."

"Uh, thanks," the black haired boy said as he examined the fruit. He looked up to see Remus already halfway back to the trees, and scurried after. "Hey, Rem!" Remus paused to wait for him.

"Yeah?"

"D'you believe what Arkness and Inkel said?" They had reached the trees, and as Remus settled himself down at the base of one, between the roots, Sirius decided to climb up it, always enjoying the light feeling that it gave him. "You know, about me being a nancy and all?" Remus leaned back against the trunk and chewed on his plum thoughtfully.

"Well," he began after a couple of minutes, "the only thing that I can say to you is ask yourself why they called you that in the first place. I don't know you well enough or talk with you often enough to answer you truthfully or with any concrete knowledge." A small silence enveloped the two again.

"Well that sucks," Sirius said lightly after some time, to which Remus gave a small chuckle. "Are you sure that you don't know anything that could help?" Remus chewed his bottom lip nervously.

"Uh, there is one thing that you could do if you don't know your sexual orientation," he replied. "Fabian did it before and told me about it when I was seven…he…_ explained_ some things."

"What is it?" asked Sirius eagerly, looking down at his tawny haired friend.

"Um…you snog a bloke and see how much you like it…"

There was complete silence. Remus' face turned beet red for the second time that morning. The next thing he knew, Sirius was laughing._ Hysterically_. The werewolf also realized fleetingly that if the Slytherin didn't stop soon, he was going to fall right off of the branch that he was perched on. He did, and landed on Remus.

"_OUCH_," the black haired boy looked down at his struggling friend. "Oops."

"Oops is right," the Gryffindor muttered as he shoved Sirius off of himself. "Go find some poor soul to dump yourself upon."

"Well…I already have."

"Wai – wha?" Remus' eyes widened. "Oh nonononono_, NO_. There is no way in _HELL_ that I am going to let you do that." Sirius just smirked and scooted closer. Remus scooted farther back. Sirius leaned forward, leering. Remus leaned backwards, worrying. Then Remus did something that Sirius didn't expect. The tawny boy was glaring at the ground, muttering _"damn you, Black"_ one second, and the next he was grabbing his friend at the shoulders and yanking him forward.

Sirius' surprised face was just mere centimeters from Remus' now sneering one. "You owe me for this," the werewolf ground out. In the split second before Remus sealed the deal, Sirius noticed that his eyes had morphed from their usual amber and gold to a bright yellow.

For a heartbeat there was pressure on his lips, and then it was gone. Sirius wasn't even sure it ever happened. With a hand on his lips and a deep frown settling on his brows, the boy looked around for his friend. The look deepened when no trace of the werewolf presented itself. Sirius huffed in a very spoiled-brat manner as he stood up, looking around one last time. The boy left, fuming.

Up in the peach tree, Remus let out a breath that he hadn't realized he was holding.

--James Potter—

"Nelle, I need to speak with you about something."

Perenelle turned around in her seat and examined her little brother. James' expression said enough. The witch sighed and excused herself; she led James into one of the abandoned classrooms across the Entrance Hall.

_'Classroom four,'_ the boy noticed as he walked through the doorway.

"What's it this time, Jim?" Perenelle asked as she sat down on the floor, patting the space beside her. James joined his sister, re-adjusting his glasses.

"Well, it's about Sirius and Remus," the boy began. "I think that that prophecy you made is coming true." The teenager sighed again and positioned herself so that she was on her back.

"Look, James. That wasn't a prophecy, it was a prediction – it won't go to the Department of Mysteries or anything – it was simply a fortune telling of two of your classmates."

"Two of my friends, thank you very much."

Perenelle smiled slightly.

"And besides," James continued sourly, "it's not like you care about them."

"Care about them!" Perenelle echoed. Her face contorted into a frown. "Of course I care about them, Remus is the little brother and cousin of four of my closest friends!"

"What about Sirius then? What about the Black, the Slytherin?" James got up and stood scowling down at his sisters' upside-down face. "Don't you remember what you told me before we got on the train? _'They're not all bad.'_You told me to keep on being friendly with the people that I met on the train, no matter what house they were put into. I'm betting that you saw something that had to do with me and my friends in the future, you knew that Sirius was going to be Sorted into Slytherin and me into Ravenclaw and you told Mum and Dad! That's why Dad said that I should pay attention to it and not forget what you said."

Perenelle just stared back up at him with hazy white eyes. "You really do belong in Ravenclaw you know," she said softly. James growled in frustration and turned on his heel, cloak billowing behind him as he fled the classroom.

_'Bloody stupid Seer!'_

.xxx.

**AN**: okay that was chapter eight, now you know the thing with Perenelle and you can probably guess what's going on with the other Marauders. Speaking of which, some more important stuff will be in the upcoming chapters like the naming of the group and a big thing involving the six original first years. I was wondering if anybody could help me with the prank ideas, I'm having trouble thinking up ones that haven't been used yet. It'll probably take a bit for the next chapter to be put up. -JtW


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